Ohio State's first road game and conference contest arrive in one bundle this Saturday.
Michigan State
Spartans
The Buckeyes will travel to East Lansing, Michigan to take on a Michigan State team that is already one win away from matching the four wins it obtained in 2023. The Spartans are off to a 3-1 start including a 27-24 Big Ten win over Maryland on Sept. 7.
Michigan State is in the first year of a rebuild under newly minted head coach Jonathan Smith, who took over the Spartans' program after a six-year stint piloting Oregon State in his first head coaching job. Smith stockpiled his first Green and White roster with a smattering of transfers, trying to restore a program with a proud tradition to a competitive place in the conference.
A Stand for Oregon State
In the 130-year history of Oregon State football, there have been only three 10-win seasons for the Beavers. Smith is responsible for one of them.
Taking over in 2018, Smith inherited a team fresh off four consecutive losing seasons – including a 1-11 mark in 2017 – and took it on a slow burn back to a respectable place in the since-disassembled Pac-12. Smith went from 2-10 in his first season to 7-6 in 2021 to 10-3 with a Las Vegas Bowl victory in 2022.
Michigan State hasn't fallen on such hard times as a 1-11 season but needed an overhaul entering 2024. The Spartans went from 5-7 in 2022 to firing head coach Mel Tucker in September 2023 amid a sexual harassment investigation. Tucker has since sued the school, claiming he was wrongfully terminated.
That aside, the Spartans limped to a 4-8 finish in 2023 for their first back-to-back losing seasons since they went 5-6 and 4-8 in 2005 and 2006 under John L. (not Jonathan) Smith. MSU has been something of a whipping boy for the Buckeyes in recent years, falling 48-3 to OSU in 2017 to start a streak of seven consecutive games lost by 20 points or more to the Scarlet and Gray, including a 38-3 Ohio State win last year.
Smith and Michigan State will aim for a more competitive game in 2024. Regardless, it should be a great litmus test for his program in year one against the class of his new conference.
Chiles of Legend
Aidan Chiles captains the Michigan State offense at quarterback. Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Smith brought three players with him from Oregon State, but none came in with nearly the hype quarterback Aidan Chiles brought from Portland.
Chiles entered East Lansing as the No. 8 transfer portal prospect and No. 2 quarterback in the portal this offseason per 247Sports, behind only Ohio State acquisition Julian Sayin, the No. 1 high school quarterback in the class of 2024 before he left Alabama. Chiles was a four-star prospect in the class of 2023 ranked 152nd overall in the 247Sports composite and 12th among quarterbacks.
Though Chiles played in nine games for the Beavers as D.J. Uiagalelei's backup in 2023, he attempted just 35 passes, completing 24 of them for 309 yards and four touchdowns. He added 79 rushing yards.
That dual-threat ability might be the most exciting element Chiles offers at this stage of his career. He's been inefficient throwing the ball four games into his first season as a starter, completing just 54.3% of his passes for 891 yards and four touchdowns with seven interceptions – more picks than any other Big Ten quarterback. Chiles went 17-of-35 (48.6%) for 241 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions in Michigan State's 23-19 loss to Boston College on Saturday.
Chiles managed 363 yards and three touchdowns through the air on 63.2% completions in the aforementioned win over Maryland, but he still tossed two interceptions.
Running quarterbacks have hurt the Buckeyes in the past, even as recently as last week's Marshall game. To that end, Chiles has 95 rushing yards and three scores on the ground this year including the sacks he's taken.
Portal Patrol
Chiles is one of 24 players acquired in the transfer portal by Michigan State. Eight of those 24 fill starting roles for the Spartans with an even split of four on offense and four on defense.
Outside of Chiles, the most notable offensive weapon is tight end Jack Velling, who gobbled up 29 receptions for 438 yards and eight touchdowns for Oregon State in 2023. He's off to a productive start with the Spartans, picking up 12 catches for 159 yards in 2024.
Center Tanner Miller – who joins Chiles and Velling as the final Beaver building a new dam in East Lansing – and left guard Luke Newman, who started 37 games at Holy Cross, round out the transfer starters on offense.
Defensively the biggest portal pickup is easily former Wisconsin linebacker Jordan Turner, who paces Michigan State with 22 tackles, six tackles for loss and three sacks. Former UCF safety Nikai Martinez has 13 tackles and an interception while former Arizona State cornerback Ed Woods has settled in alongside him in the secondary with 17 tackles of his own.
Former Georgia Tech defensive tackle D'Quan Douse rounds out the starting defensive transfers with 11 tackles and one tackle for loss this year.
Balanced Defense
With Chiles' passing inefficiencies and a rushing attack ranked 75th in yards per game (153.8) and 69th in yards per carry (4.6), the defense is what has carried MSU to its three wins thus far.
Michigan State has simply been sound across the board. The Spartans have allowed 254.8 yards per game and 14.3 points, good for 14th and 25th in the country. They are 29th in run defense and 27th in pass defense.
Penetration is a big reason for the team's success in stopping offenses. MSU is tied for second nationally with 15 sacks. Defensive end Khris Bogle is tied with Turner for the team lead at three. The Spartans are also eighth nationally in tackles for loss with 32, with Bogle sitting just behind Turner at five for the season.
Despite the loss on Saturday, Michigan State held Boston College under 300 yards of offense.
Safety Angelo Grose and linebacker Cal Haladay will also be athletes to watch on Michigan State's defense. Each player has 19 tackles, with Grose adding an interception, a pass breakup and a forced fumble as Haladay has picked up 2.5 tackles for loss and a sack.
Rivalry Quartet
Michigan State hoists the Paul Bunyan Trophy in 2021 after defeating Michigan. Nick King/Lansing State Journal/USA TODAY NETWORK
There's a rich football tradition in East Lansing. Many forget that the Spartans claim six national titles, possibly because the first was won in 1951 and the last in 1966. They were a juggernaut for 15 years and have only rarely been nationally relevant otherwise.
But one of the neatest portions of MSU football lore that still holds a place today is its rivalries. Michigan State has four rivals and it plays each of them for a trophy. Each series dates back more than 100 years. Here's an incredibly condensed backstory to those prizes, from oldest first meeting to newest:
- The Megaphone Trophy (MSU/Notre Dame, first meeting 1897, Notre Dame leads 47-29-1): This giant megaphone on a wooden base was introduced in 1949 and is painted in half MSU colors and half Notre Dame colors. The trophy is on its third iteration after the first two ran out of space through the teams' 79 all-time meetings. Michigan State and Notre Dame haven't played for this one since 2017, but the series is renewed for a home-and-home in 2026 and 2027.
- The Paul Bunyan Trophy (MSU/Michigan, 1898, Michigan leads 73-38-5): This award's full name is actually the Paul Bunyan – Governor of Michigan Trophy due to the fact it was established by Michigan governor G. Mennen Wiliams to honor the Spartans' entry into the Big Ten in 1953. Michigan and other northern states are as synonymous with logging as Akron is with rubber, and no lumberjack fable is more famous than that of Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe.
- The Land Grant Trophy (MSU/Penn State, 1914, PSU leads 19-18-1): There is a land-grant institution in every U.S. state, territory and the District of Columbia thanks to a couple of federal laws. Michigan State and Penn State are two of the 112 out there and 11 of them reside in the Big Ten. The trophy, which features a small statue of a player, a tall plaque with nameplates of winners, a small Nittany Lion, a small Spartan and photos of university buildings from both schools, was made by a family-owned sporting goods store in 1993.
- The Old Brass Spittoon (MSU/Indiana, 1922, MSU leads 50-18-2): The beauty of this piece of hardware is in its simplicity. No names of winners on the outside, it's just a big brass spittoon (y'know, like you'd spit tobacco in back in the olden days) that almost looks golden. It was equally simple to establish. Gene McDermott proposed the idea for the trophy as a student at MSU in 1950. After getting permission from MSU head coach Biggie Munn, McDermott found the spittoon at an antique shop, walked into both teams' locker rooms before their 1950 matchup and told them they'd be playing for it then handed it to the coaches.
